Cowper: God moves in a mysterious way

Sunday, September 28, 2025
Meditation:
    Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
    —Romans 11:33 (NIV)
Quotation:
God moves in a mysterious way,
    His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
    And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
    Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
    And works his sov’reign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
    The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
    In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
    But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
    He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
    Unfolding ev’ry hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
    But sweet will be the flow’r.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
    And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
    And he will make it plain.
    ... William Cowper (1731-1800), Olney Hymns [1779], John Newton, Edinburgh: Murray & Cochrane, 1797, fifth edition, p. 255 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 11:33; Isa. 55:8-9; John 13:7; Rom. 8:28; 1 Tim. 3:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I place my trust in You.

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Hallesby: helplessness

Saturday, September 27, 2025
    Feast of Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists), 1660
Meditation:
For [God] will deliver the needy who cry out,
    the afflicted who have no one to help.
    —Psalm 72:12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Your helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas. He hears it from the very moment that you are seized with helplessness, and He becomes actively engaged at once in hearing and answering the prayer of your helplessness.
    ... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 17 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 72:12; Deut. 32:36; Ps. 142:4-6; Matt. 9:2-8,36; Mark 2:2-12; Luke 5:18-26; John 5:2-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are faithful. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Wirt: How to spot a Christian

Friday, September 26, 2025
    Commemoration of Wilson Carlile, Priest, Founder of the Church Army, 1942
Meditation:
    “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
    Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
    —Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We see [Jesus] exalting love for neighbor along with love for God. He reaches out to foreigners who are beyond the borders of the “Israel of God.” He seeks the release of captives, prisoners, and slaves. He denounces the scribes and religious leaders who “devour the houses of widows.” Despite his well-known requirement of loyalty that surpasses family ties, he insists that a man put the care of his own parents ahead of his obligations to his religion. His treatment of women is radically opposed to the strictures of that day. He exhibits sympathy and understanding toward children. He operates an out-patient clinic wherever he happens to be. He insists upon justice as the basis for everyday dealings between citizens. The social teaching of parables like “the good Samaritan” and incidents such as the encounter with the rich young ruler have had an effect upon his followers that cannot easily be measured. If one summary stat ement of Jesus’ ethics can be made, it is that love of God is best shown by love of fellow man.
    ... Sherwood Eliot Wirt (1911-2008), The Social Conscience of the Evangelical, New York: Harper & Row, 1968, p. 23 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 22:36-40; 7:16-20; 12:15; 19:18-19; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 4:17-19,40; 10:30-36
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have taken away our sin so that we might become like You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Andrewes: the cost of peace

Thursday, September 25, 2025
    Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626
    Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392
Meditation:
    “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” [Jonah] replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
    ...
    Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
    —Jonah 1;12,15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Jesus] sheweth them His hands and His side, as much to say; See what I have suffered to procure your peace. Your peace cost Me this;—see you hold it dear. Now sure, if there were any one thing better than other, those hands would not have withheld it, and that heart would wish it. And peace it doth wish, therefore nothing more to be wished.
    There need no other sign be given but that of the Prophet Jonas, that Christ wished His wish: so the tempest may cease, and peace as a calm ensue, spare me not, “take me, cast me into the sea,” make me a peace-offering and kill me. This is enough to shew it is to be wished, to make it precious in our eyes. For we undervalue it at too low a rate, when that which cost so dear, for every trifling ceremony we are ready to lose it. Our faint persuasion in this point is the cause we are faint in all the rest.
    ... Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Ninety-six Sermons, v. II, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841, p. 244 (see the book)
    See also Jonah 1:12,15; Matt. 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 2:14; 11:29-30; 19:42; John 14:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You sacrificed all for us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Smith: God's watchfulness

Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Meditation:
    But now, this is what the LORD says—he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.”
    —Isaiah 43:1-3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We may be perfectly sure of this, that the time of our need is the time of His closest and tenderest watchfulness. What would we think of a mother who should run away from her children the moment they got into trouble? And yet this hateful thing, which we would resent in any human mother, some of God’s own children do not hesitate to ascribe to Him!
    ... Hannah Whitall Smith (1832-1911), Every-day Religion, New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1893, p. 111 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 43:1-3; Ps. 18:6; 116:1-2; Isa. 43:16-17; Matt. 4:24; Luke 4:40; Rom. 15:13; Heb. 4:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I may rely on You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Warfield: true man and true God

Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Meditation:
    Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
    —Philippians 2:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The glory of the Incarnation is that it presents to our adoring gaze, not a humanized God or a deified man, but a true God-man—one who is all that God is and at the same time all that man is: on whose almighty arm we can rest, and to whose human sympathy we can appeal. We cannot afford to lose either the God in the man or the man in the God; our hearts cry out for the complete God-man whom the Scriptures offer us.
    ... Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921), Selected Shorter Writings of Benjamin B. Warfield, v. 1, Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., 1970, p. 166 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 2:6-8; Matt. 28:18; John 3:31; 5:26-27; 20:27-28; Heb. 4:15; Jas. 2:1
Quiet time reflection:
    Jesus, You are my Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Thomas a Kempis: patience in adversity

Monday, September 22, 2025
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
    —Matthew 5:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The truly patient man considereth not by what man he is tried, whether by one above him, or by an equal or inferior, whether by a good and holy man, or a perverse and unworthy; but indifferently from every creature, whatsoever or how often soever adversity happeneth to him, he gratefully accepteth all from the hand of God and counteth it great gain: for with God nothing which is borne for His sake, however small, shall lose its reward.
    ... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, III.xix.3, p. 150 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 5:11-12; 10:40-42; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:22-23,35; Eph. 6:7-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, make me patient. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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